Human trafficking of victims from Albania rises in Britain

In the recent month, reports show that number of human trafficking and people locked in slavery in Britain rose by 22 percent last year.

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) identified 2,744 people, including 602 children, as potential victims of human trafficking in 2013 with more than 40 percent ending up in the sex trade and almost 30 percent forced into manual labour.

The number of victims from Albania, Slovakia and Lithuania increased significantly last year, the NCA said, while the number trafficked from Vietnam and Hungary also rose slightly.

Karen Bradley, who was appointed modern slavery and organised crime minister earlier this year, described modern slavery as an appalling crime that has “no place in today’s society”.

“Yet these figures show it is taking place here – often out of sight – in shops, fields, building sites and behind the curtains of ordinary streets,” Bradley said in a statement as the NCA report was released.

Almost 30 million people are enslaved worldwide, trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labour, victims of debt bondage or born into servitude, according to rights group Walk Free Foundation that produces the Global Slavery Index.

It estimated that between 4,200 and 4,600 are enslaved in the United Kingdom.

3 Comments

All the result of globalisation (easier movement of people and goods, thanks to improved technology), which is being exploited by crime, while states are still behaving as isolated entities. I will take Albania as an example:
The current high level of crime by albanian gangs in europe is a direct result of bad governments in Albania, especially during post-communism. This is, of course, a problem that should be solved by albanians, and the west is not legally obliged to help.
In 2009, the albanians probably voted Berisha out of office, but elections were rigged. Massive protests took place as a consequence, to investigate the fraud. The european union DESPICABLY split along political lines, where right-wing MEPs supported Berisha and left-wing MEPs supported Rama. I was disgusted to see european politicians speak against the protestors’ request to investigate the fraud. A symbolic dialogue and negotiations took place, and Berisha simply pulled out a few months later, pretty much getting away with the electoral theft. If Rama would have come to government in 2009, the Lazarati phenomenon, for example, would have been halted 4 years ago, and the state rebuilding would have started 4 years earlier. But Europe doesn’t give a crap about Eastern Europe – those spineless politicians in the European Parliament are very unlikely to turn down bribes by ex-sigurimi gangsters like Berisha in return for a degree of support.